Page 28 - European Energy Innovation - Summer 2016 publication
P. 28
28 Summer 2016 European Energy Innovation
AVIATION
The sustainable future of aviation:
how the industry can achieve its
climate goals
By Michael Gill, Executive Director, Air Transport Action Group
Air transport is a vital feature roughly 2% of man-made carbon Aviation’s third goal is the long-term
of our modern, globalised emissions. Our industry recognises challenge for the industry. Carbon-
world, connecting people that our operations contribute to neutral growth is a holding measure,
and businesses across climate change and we are taking the rather than a solution in itself. Reducing
oceans and continents. Without air responsibility to lessen this impact overall emissions by half is no easy
connectivity, our societies would be extremely seriously. task, but work is already underway to
unrecognisable. To truly appreciate the lay the foundations. This goal can only
benefits of aviation, one only needs In 2008, aviation leaders came together be achieved through technological
to look at the numbers. The global to put in place a set of global carbon development and innovation,
aviation industry employs roughly 63 reduction goals, the first such goals something which the aviation industry
million people and accounts for 3.5% of made by any international transport has a strong track record in.
global GDP ($2.7 trillion). industry. They are to:
New, disruptive, technologies
The benefits of air travel are clear, • achieve a 1.5% average annual are needed to cut CO2 emissions
but this connectivity comes with an increase across the sector until 2020; drastically, whilst also preserving the
environmental cost. In 2014, civil economic growth that air transport
aviation, as a whole, emitted around • ensure carbon-neutral growth from enables. This can take the form of
739 million tonnes of CO2, which is 2020; and entirely new aircraft and engine
designs, powered by means other than
• cut overall emissions to half of what fossil-based fuels. Research is already
they were in 2005 by 2050. underway on hybrid-electric, and even
fully-electric, aircraft. However, this is
Aviation is approaching the challenge unlikely to materialise for a number of
of achieving these goals through a decades. In the meantime, innovation
four-pillar strategy: developing new in energy supply, fitting in with current
technology, more efficient operations, technology, is required.
better infrastructure (particularly in
air traffic management) and a market- This is where sustainable alternative
based measure for aviation CO2 fuels enter the picture in aviation’s
emissions. climate strategy. This fuel is almost
chemically identical to traditional jet
These goals are ambitious, but they fuel, but has a far lower environmental
are achievable, and the strategy the impact. Some sustainable alternative
industry has in place is bearing fruit. fuels can be up to 80% less carbon-
We are already more than meeting intensive over their lifecycle. This fuel
our first goal, with an average annual can either recycle the carbon used to
fuel efficiency of 2.4% since 2009. grow feedstock, if it is crop-based, or
Our ability to achieve the goal of in the case of waste-to-fuel processes,
carbon-neutral growth is expected to merely use carbon that would have
be enhanced later this year, when the been emitted into the atmosphere to
ICAO Assembly convenes to decide on power an aircraft. This makes these
the implementation of a global market- alternative fuels sustainable.
based measure for aviation emissions
growth, likely to take the form of a In the early years of biofuel used in the
mandatory offsetting scheme. road sector, a great deal of controversy
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